National Championship

In an era when "the old college try" sounds hopelessly quaint, lacrosse remains possibly the only sport where the term rings true. Young men who play the game can aspire to no greater heights than to reach the NCAA Division I championship - as have Johns Hopkins and Duke, which play today for the title at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. When their college careers end, these players won't be signing multimillion-dollar pro contracts, selling sodas in glitzy TV ads or even competing for Olympic gold.

Each week, The Baltimore Sun will publish a Q&A with an area college lacrosse player to help you become more acquainted with the player and his/her team. Today's guest is Salisbury senior Katie Bollhorst, last season's Division III Attacker of the Year and Capital Athletic Conference Player of the Year, who was named to the 2013 Tewaaraton Award watch list. The St. Mary's graduate scored three goals and had an assist in the Sea Gulls' season-opening 19-5 win over Stevenson and stands seventh on school career points list with 121. She's fourth in assists with 72. More than all the individual accolades, Bollhorst would prefer to finish her career with a national championship after the Sea Gulls lost to Trinity, 8-7, in last year's final.

The corner of Orleans and Central in East Baltimore was swarming with anticipation. Dunbar's boys basketball team had a big game to play, which meant an eager crowd began forming outside the school's gym doors more than two hours before the opening tip. Not everybody would make it inside, but those who did saw the numerous championship pennants that take up an entire wall, each square foot needed to recognize the decades of excellence....

A year after leading Towson to its first Football Championship Subdivision appearance in school history, fourth-year coach Rob Ambrose reacted angrily Sunday after his 7-4 Tigers were snubbed by the NCAA selection committee for an invitation to this season's playoffs. Despite finishing the season on a four-game winning streak, including a 64-35 demolition of playoff-bound New Hampshire in Durham, N.H., Saturday, Towson failed to be invited into the 20-team field after losing in the opening round to Lehigh in 2011.

The first conversation Derrell Edwards had with High Point basketball coach Scott Cherry was a memorable one. Edwards and his South Plains College teammates were preparing for the National Junior College Athletic Association tournament. But before Edwards left Levelland, Texas for Hutchinson, Kan., the former Dunbar star had what proved to be the first of many chats with Cherry. “The first thing he said was, 'Derrell Edwards, please tell me you're not signed with [anybody]

Notre Dame has made two Final Fours in the last three years, including reaching the national title game where they fell to Duke in overtime in 2010. Last season, the program lost to eventual NCAA champion Loyola in the national semifinals. Those trips were nice, but coach Kevin Corrigan said he doesn't want his players banking on the past. “I want them to be completely present in the now, and that means for each of them, they need to bring their experiences and everything they've done until now to the present time,” he said.

The Johns Hopkins women's cross country team totaled 153 points to capture its first NCAA Division III women's cross country national championship Saturday in Terre Haute, Ind. The title is the first women's national championship in any sport in Johns Hopkins history, and first Division III title since men's swimming in 1979. Hopkins defeated runner-up Wartburg by 63 points, the greatest margin of victory in a women's Division III championship race since 2002. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps finished third with 233 points.

MIAMI -- South Florida is filled with equal parts anxiety and expectation toward Friday's Orange Bowl.The final game of the college football season should be a can't-miss matchup. It has a back-room seal of approval as the "Alliance National Championship," and the farewell of not one legend, but two, Nebraska coach Tom Osborne and Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning.And it will mean diddly if Michigan blows out Washington State in the Rose Bowl, which will join the Bowl Alliance a year too late for Nebraska's liking.

Markakis contract situation handled correctly by Angelos, O's All those people up in arms about the Nick Markakis contract non-negotiation, fans and media alike, need to chill out and relax. This is not another example of Orioles mismanagement; this is simply Angelos and company playing the system the way it is designed to be. The owners have all the leverage early, arbitration quickly kicks in and the guys who perform get paid, then free agency follows, where anyone still standing gets overpaid.